This two-volume text covers nearly every aspect of modern psychiatry. Because the last edition was published in 1989, the advent of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) called for major changes in the 30th anniversary edition of the Kaplan and Sadock text. Thus, it is nearly 25% larger than the previous edition.

The volumes contain 53 chapters, 27 of which focus on the diagnostic approach taken in DSM-IV, and accordingly, diagnostic categories are highlighted with a critical commentary on the criteria and a case example. A new useful addition are the color pictures of all the drugs currently used in psychiatry in the United States. Another serviceable feature is that contributors were asked to note with an asterisk the five most important references in their long bibliographies. The preface has a succinct and pithy explication of the crisis in US health care and is well